This invention relates to a sheet metal working tool and more particularly to a tool for pulling out dents from automobile sheet metal bodies.
When access is available to only one side of a damaged automotive sheet metal body, a tool capable of pulling from the blind side must be utilized. Conventional tools for this purpose and the difficulties presented by the known prior art devices are enumerated in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,382 dated Nov. 17, 1981. To overcome these difficulties my aforesaid patent proposed a tool for straightening indentations in sheet metal which included a pair of levers each having first and second legs disposed angularly to one another and pivotably connected together such that the levers could be pivoted from a position in which the axes of the first legs are superposed upon each other for insertion of both first legs simultaneously into a hole formed in the sheet metal for receiving the legs, and thereafter pivoted to a second position in which the first legs face in opposite directions from the pivot for engaging the sheet metal at opposite directions across the hole. A pulling force may thereafter be exerted along the second legs to pull out the dent. Although that device functions satisfactory, one problem limiting acceptance of the device is that the size of the hole required for insertion of the first legs is larger than is desirable because the legs must be of sufficient thickness, at least at the location of the pivotable connection, to withstand the pulling force.